Conversation: 865-028
Prev: 865-027 Next: 865-029Start Date: 28-Feb-1973 4:25 PM
End Date: 28-Feb-1973 5:46 PM
Participants:
Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ash, Roy L.; Shultz, George P.; Ehrlichman, John D.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");Recording Device: Oval Office
NARA Description:
On February 28, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Roy L. Ash, George P. Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:25 pm to 5:46 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 865-028 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid:
Conversation No. 865-28
Date: February 28, 1973
Time: 4:25 pm-5:46 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Roy L. Ash, George P. Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. (“Bob”)
Haldeman.
Greetings
Statistics
Governor’s meeting
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Death of Winthrop Rockefeller
-Revenue sharing
-Partisanship
-Fait accompli
-State budgets
-Ash
-Misinformation
-Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW] telegrams on library funding
-Congressional appropriations
-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
-28-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Governor of South Dakota Richard S. Kneip
-Special revenue sharing budget
-Library programs
-President’s support
Revenue sharing
-Program cuts
-No bid [?] programs
-Ronald W. Reagan
-Categorical programs for special revenue sharing
-Congress
-General revenue sharing
-Budget limits
-Social services cuts
-Weinberger
-Regulations
-James T. Lynn, John J. Gilligan
-Community development, housing
Congressional relations
-Budget
-Abstract
-Fact sheets
Budget
-Human resources compared to defense budget
-Changes during President’s administration
-Social Security
-Effects on foreign policy, defense
-Wheat exports
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
Governors’ meeting
-Marvin Mandel
-General revenue sharing
-President’s statement
-Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
-Ehrlichman, Bryce N. Harlow
-29-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Special revenue sharing
-Efficacy
-Formula
-Advice of governors
-Previous talks with governors
-Foreign policy
-Vietnam
Governorships
-Parochial atmosphere
-Role and function
-Rockefeller, Reagan
-Political aspirations
-Budget
-Revenue sharing
-Compared with Shultz’s role
-State of the State address
-Sacramento, California; Albany, New York
-Press coverage
-Publicity
-Special revenue sharing
-Expanded role
-Compared to categorical grants
Governors
-Press relations
-Vietnam issues
-Time, Newsweek
-[Arnold] Eric Sevareid
President’s talk to governors
-Previous talks
-Foreign policy
-Middle East, Cambodia, Paris peace, Vietnam
-Trade
-Trade missions
-Farm states
-Exports
-30-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Mandel
-People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Liaison office
-Chou En-lai
-Exchange program
-Henry A. Kissinger
PRC
-Clouse and Peabody [?]
-Trade mission
-Textiles
-Centralization
-Economic capability
-Compared with India, Africa
Latin America
-North, South economic development
-Brazil
-Africa
-Southern Africa
Congressional testimony
-Shultz
-Treasury budget
-Ash
-Appropriations committees
-Funding compared with implementation
-Taxes
Congress
-Lobbying
-Farmers, special interests
Poll on budget cuts
-Stewart J. O. Alsop
-Kissinger
-Congress
-Sindlinger, Harris
-31-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Questions
-William J. Barody, Jr.
-Federal spending
-Inflation
-Taxes
-Charles W. Colson
-Haldeman
-Gallup
-Impoundment
Administration’s image with people
-Shultz, Weinberger, Ash
-Compassion
-Federal expenditures, spending
-Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy
-Compassionate rhetoric
-Congressional testimony
-Weinberger, Lynn
-Hardhats
-Taxes
-Federal spending
-Democrats, Republicans
-Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F.
Kennedy
-Minority hiring
-President’s view
-Blacks
-Italians
-Mexicans
-Woman
-Symbolism
-Weinberger, Ash
-Responsibility compared to demagoguery
-Robert Kennedy, Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
Milton Friedman’s interview
-Playboy
-32-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
Dean G. Acheson
-Present at the Creation
-School vouchers
-Minimum wage
-Effect on poor
-University of California
-Tuition
-Education subsidies
Veterans
-Ash
-President’s supporters
Farmers
-President’s supporters
-Legislation
-Subsidies
Veterans
-POWs
-Press coverage
-Cartoons
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-Legislation
-Vetoes
-Bureaucracy
-Benefits
-Appropriations
-Johnson
-Charles M. Teague
-Power of lobby
-POWs
-Price
-War critics
-Moral issue
-John V. Lindsay
Loss of faith in country
-33-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Upper class, universities
-George S. McGovern
-POWs’ return from Vietnam
-Press reporting
-United Press International [UPI]
-Programming
Press relations
-White House press corps
-Antiwar bias
-Peter Lisagor
-Dwight D. Eisenhower, Truman
-Television [TV]
-Downfall of Johnson
-Attitude toward President
-Press conferences
-President’s statements
-POWs
-Press coverage
-Popular perceptions
-Evanston, Illinois
-Administration’s message
-Bias
-Cities, veterans, “Jobs for Veterans”
-News summary
Veterans
-Unemployment
-Memo from Price
President’s meeting with Ivy League presidents
-Cambodia
-Campus violence
-University of California, Berkeley
Critics
-Reaction to end of Vietnam War
-Intellectuals
-34-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Congress, press
Intellectuals compared to manual laborers
-Lawyers
-Psychiatry
-Seattle
-Wives
End of Vietnam War
-Arthur F. Burns
Glenn Olds [President of Kent State University]
-Drug policy
Critics
-Administration’s handling
-Congress, press
Politicians
-Washington Post, New York Times, Martin Z. Agronsky’s show
Social events at Blair House
-Thomas W. Braden
-Women
-Kissinger
-Cabinet officers
Executive reform
-Shultz
-Special revenue sharing
-Program cuts
-Budget
-Ash
-Congress
-Alsop
-REAP [?]
-Tax code
-Water quality
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
-Muskie
Muskie
-Linwood Holton
Executive reform
-Camp David
-Shultz
Partisanship
-Congress
1972 election
-Carl T. Curtis
-Nebraska results
-President’s victory
-Electoral college vote
-Compared to Johnson’s 1964 victory
-Governor of Massachusetts [Francis Sargent]
Opportunities for President
-Dwight Eisenhower
-Budget
-Reorganization
-Revenue sharing
-Centralization of power in Washington
-Franklin D. Roosevelt, Johnson’s administration
-New Deal, Fair Deal, Great Society
-State government compared to Federal administration
-Property tax
-Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations
-Efficacy
-Ehrlichman’s briefing in Detroit
-Reports
-Publicity
-Graham Watt
-Congressional hearings
-Special revenue sharing
-36-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)
The President, et al., left at 5:46 pm.